Bible Verse Picker

Bible Verses About Patience

A random verse drawn from 27 passages chosen for this topic.

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.

Psalms 27:14KJV

Drawing from 27 verses

Patience gets steady attention in Scripture, usually under two related ideas. The first is waiting on God, trusting His timing when answers come slowly. The second is bearing with people, staying calm and kind when someone tests your limits.

The Psalms model the first kind. Several of them, traditionally attributed to David, describe waiting on the Lord through danger, delay, and long silence. They keep landing in the same place, and the message is that the waiting is worth it.

Proverbs handles the second kind. Its short sayings praise the person who is slow to anger and count the real cost of a quick temper.

The New Testament ties the two together. Paul lists patience as a fruit of the Spirit, something God grows in a person over time. James points to the farmer waiting for rain and reminds his readers that endurance is how faith matures.

The generator above will hand you a random patience verse from this collection. Click again as often as you like until one fits your situation.

These verses get used in very ordinary moments. A parent worn down by a toddler, a job search that keeps stalling, a couple waiting on an adoption, a believer praying the same prayer for years.

If any of that sounds familiar, slow down with one verse instead of skimming ten. Patience verses tend to work on you gradually, which is fitting.

Many people pair a verse with a short prayer, asking God for the patience the verse describes instead of trying to produce it alone. Scripture treats patience as something God supplies, not something you grit your teeth and manufacture.

One more encouragement before you start clicking. Biblical patience is not passive.

Waiting on God, as the Bible describes it, means you keep doing good, keep praying, and keep showing up in the meantime. The verses in this collection will keep bringing you back to that.

All 27 verses about patience, in the King James Version

Waiting on God when the answer is slow

The largest group, and the one most people are actually searching for. These are the passages written by people mid-wait rather than after it ended. The Psalms carry the raw version, Lamentations the quietest, and Habakkuk the most direct promise that a delay is not a denial.

  1. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.

    Psalms 27:14

  2. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

    Psalms 37:7

  3. I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

    Psalms 40:1

  4. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

    Psalms 130:5

  5. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

    Isaiah 40:31

  6. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

    Lamentations 3:25

  7. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

    Lamentations 3:26

  8. Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

    Micah 7:7

  9. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

    Habakkuk 2:3

Patience with people who test you

Proverbs handles this kind almost by itself, in short lines that treat a quick temper as a practical mistake rather than only a moral one. Paul picks up the same thread and puts patience in the middle of how a community is meant to hold together.

  1. He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

    Proverbs 14:29

  2. A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.

    Proverbs 15:18

  3. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

    Proverbs 16:32

  4. The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.

    Proverbs 19:11

  5. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

    1 Corinthians 13:4

  6. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

    Ephesians 4:2

  7. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

    Colossians 3:12

  8. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

    1 Thessalonians 5:14

Patience under pressure that will not lift

For waits with weight on them: illness, hardship, work that never seems to pay off. These verses do not promise the pressure ends soon. They argue that endurance is producing something, which is a different and more durable kind of comfort.

  1. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

    Ecclesiastes 7:8

  2. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

    Romans 5:3

  3. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

    Romans 8:25

  4. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

    Romans 12:12

  5. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

    Galatians 6:9

  6. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

    Hebrews 10:36

  7. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

    James 1:4

Where patience comes from

The passages that explain the rest. James points at a farmer who cannot rush a harvest, and Peter reframes a delay you resent as patience being shown toward someone else. Read alongside Galatians 5:22, they treat patience as something grown in a person rather than gritted out.

  1. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

    James 5:7

  2. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

    James 5:8

  3. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

    2 Peter 3:9

Frequently asked questions

What is the most well-known Bible verse about patience?
Probably 1 Corinthians 13:4, which opens Paul's famous description of love and is read at countless weddings. Isaiah 40:31, about renewed strength for those who wait on the Lord, is close behind. For everyday patience with people, Proverbs 15:18 and Ephesians 4:2 come up again and again. All of them appear in the collection above, so keep clicking until one of them turns up.
Is patience really a fruit of the Spirit?
Yes. Galatians 5:22 lists it alongside love, joy, and peace, and some older translations render it as longsuffering. That framing matters, because it means patience is something God grows in you over time rather than something you force through willpower. Romans 5:3 and James 1:4 add that trials are often the soil where that growth happens.
How can these verses help me be more patient with people?
Keep one where the friction happens. Parents tape Proverbs 14:29 to the fridge, and plenty of people read Ephesians 4:2 before a hard conversation or a family gathering. The goal is not to recite a verse at someone else, but to let it slow down your own reaction. Drawing one patience verse a day from the tool above builds that reflex gradually.